Joining Race, Specter Attacks the Right

By RICHARD L. BERKE

Published: March 31, 1995

WASHINGTON, March 30—
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination today and, saving his severest criticism for the right wing of his own party, said the nominee should not be "captive to the demands of the intolerant right."

With other 1996 Republican contenders casting themselves as Washington outsiders, Mr. Specter, now in his third Senate term, became the first candidate -- and may well prove the only one -- to announce his campaign in the capital. His backdrop was the Lincoln Memorial, a spot he picked because, he said, he shares with Lincoln a "deep commitment to equality and opportunity."

Mr. Specter, 65, said he had been drawn into the race because no one else in his party was speaking out in favor of abortion rights or challenging the party's increasingly influential religious conservatives. He did not hesitate to attack Patrick J. Buchanan, the conservative commentator who announced his own candidacy last week, or Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed, the leaders of the Christian Coalition.

"When Pat Robertson says there is no constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state, I say he is wrong," Mr. Specter said to applause from an audience of fewer than 200 people. "The First Amendment freedom of religion is as important today as when the Bill of Rights was first written.

"When Pat Buchanan calls for a holy war in our society, I say he is categorically wrong. We don't need holy wars. What we need is tolerance and brotherhood and simple humanity.

"And when Ralph Reed says a pro-choice Republican like Arlen Specter isn't qualified to be President, I say the Republican Party will not be intimidated or blackmailed by those kinds of threats."

In response, Mr. Reed later issued a statement that said the Christian Coalition was "deeply disappointed that the Senator has used the opening and defining moment of his campaign to personally attack people of faith and their leaders." He added that "this attempt to marginalize religious conservatives will not resonate among voters."

Indeed, few Republicans expect Mr. Specter's oratory to play well among the conservative-leaning voters who dominate the electorate in the party's primaries. There was a small demonstration of that prospect today from Pennsylvania's other Senator, Rick Santorum, a freshman Republican who is far more conservative than Mr. Specter. Mr. Santorum sat on the stage from which the new candidate spoke but rolled his eyes more than once and limited his applause.

So pronounced was Mr. Specter's attack that he spoke this line twice: "Neither this nation nor this party can afford a Republican candidate so captive to the demands of the intolerant right that we end up re-electing a President of the incompetent left."

Yet Mr. Specter devoted the first half of his speech to other issues.

He vowed to balance the Federal budget by 2002. He promoted his plan for a 20 percent flat tax on income, describing the current tax system as "a national disgrace." Recalling his years as District Attorney in Philadelphia, he said he would "put teeth back into the death penalty."

The Senator, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, also said one of his first acts as President would be to move the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, a nod to the Senate resolution that recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital. In addition, he criticized President Clinton's dealings with North Korea, saying they had not achieved nearly enough to blunt a nuclear threat, and said Mr. Clinton should have done more to fight terrorism.

"My commitment to America," Mr. Specter said, "is to replace a President who has been inattentive, inactive and indecisive when it comes to America's vital foreign policy interests."

From here, Mr. Specter repeated his speech at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. He will wind up a cross-country tour on Saturday at the Elks Club in Russell, Kan., where he -- and another Republican contender, Senator Bob Dole -- grew up.